


The Talk

by Debi_C



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Episode: s08e18 Threads, M/M, Post-Betrayal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-03
Updated: 2017-09-03
Packaged: 2018-12-23 05:15:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11982933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Debi_C/pseuds/Debi_C
Summary: Jack and Sam have a long overdue discussion, and Jack has to confess something to Daniel.





	The Talk

**Author's Note:**

> Excessive bad language/Jackspeak, some schmooshiness, and dare I say it, partner betrayal. Oh and if you liked Threads . . . well, Sam fans beware.

"Carter, please come in." General O'Neill waved the younger woman into his office.

"Yes, sir. Thank you." She entered and looked around. O'Neill had added his own touches to the room replacing those of General Hammond with his own inimitable style.

"Have a seat." He indicated one of the two chairs that faced his desk then walked around the large piece of furniture and perched on its corner.

She smiled and sat down, smoothing her uniform skirt under her thighs. Then she rested her hands in her lap. She wasn't nervous. O'Neill's bearing didn't indicate an official reason for her being here.

O'Neill cleared his throat. "Want some coffee . . . or anything?"

"No, sir. Nothing, thank you."

"Good, good." He nodded, then paused. "Maybe you're wondering why I wanted to talk to you."

"A little," she admitted, nodding.

"Well, I know that it's been a rough week for you and I just wanted to have a private chat to see how you're doing." He picked up a model of an F-14 off of his desk and fondled it. He sniffed and put it down centering it back to its original position. "So, how ya doin', Carter?"

"Fine, sir. I'm just fine. Thank you."

"How are you and Shanahan doing?"

"Sir?"

"You and Pete, doing, how are you?"

She looked at him in confusion. "Uh, sir? Pete and I, well, we called off the wedding."

"You did?" Jack looked at her in surprise. "Why?"

"Well, uh, it just wasn't working out very well, sir." She looked down at her hands, then up at him. "Pete was too, well, he was rushing it too quickly." Sam looked up into Jack's eyes. "I guess I wasn't ready to make that much of a commitment yet."

"Carter, you were engaged, for crying out loud. What do you mean not ready for a commitment?"

"I just wasn't ready yet." She shrugged. "I'm not sure I ever will be ready with him."

Jack sat a moment. "You got cold feet," he stated.

She sighed and nodded. "I guess you could say that, yes sir."

The General nodded. "Well, with Jacob, and everything, I can understand it." He remarked sympathetically. "You should probably call Pete, give it some time. I'm sure he'll understand."

"Sir?" She looked at him in confusion. "Call Pete?"

He looked back at her seriously. "Sure. Call Pete. I'm sure he'll understand, what with Jacob, the Replicators, Daniel, and everything. You've been under a lot of stress. You two can talk it all out, make it right between you two again." He shrugged. "It's common to get cold feet before a big deal like your wedding. He'll understand," he said soothingly.

"But, sir, I thought . . . " She looked at him in confusion wringing her hands in her lap.

Jack looked at her encouragingly. "Thought what?"

"Well," she flushed red. "I thought that, after the other day, that . . . "

"What?"

"Well, when you, when she left, I thought . . . "

"When who left, Carter?"

"Kerry Johnson, I thought when she went back to Washington DC that you and she had broken it off."

He looked at her in surprise. "Well, yeah, we have. She knows that I'm in a relationship with someone and well, it's beginning to heat up again. So, she stepped aside." He shrugged. "We're still friends, just not in that way."

Sam looked at him in disbelief. "You're in a relationship? With whom?"

O'Neill tilted his head to the side and opened his mouth. Then he closed it and looked at her thoughtfully. "I think that's an unusual question for you Carter. I mean if you haven't figured it out by now, I guess you just haven't noticed." The light dawned in his eyes. "You mean you think that we, you and I . . . ? He shook his head. "Carter, that would be unprofessional. I would never put your career in jeopardy like that."

Carter stood up quickly and replied hotly, "Sir! The only relationship I've noticed has been the love affair you've been having with your new stars! I thought that now you've made General that we would have a chance, since you would be retiring soon. I mean, you can't expect to make any more rank with your checkered past. I'm surprised you made it this far! If it hadn't been for General Hammond . . . "

"Whoa, whoa right there, Carter. I think you've said a bit more than you meant to." O'Neill came to his feet to stand in front of her. "My career and my relationships, as you call them, were not the topics under discussion." He moved back behind his desk using it as a barrier then he continued. " I obviously overstepped my bounds with discussing personal things with you. I think of you as a very good friend. If I did cross that line and offended you, I'm very sorry, but I think this conversation has gone too far now." He looked at her sorrowfully. "Look, Carter," he began again in a gentler tone. "I'm sorry about Jacob. I loved your dad like a brother. I'm sorry about what happened to him. I'm just as sorry about you and Pete. I think you should call him and talk this out with him, postpone the wedding, or whatever it takes, but don't throw away your chance at happiness." He smiled gently. "I'm sorry if you got a wrong idea about, well, us. But believe me, you had nothing to do with Kerry's leaving. It was something totally apart from you."

Carter sniffed and blinked back her tears, tilting her head to look him square in the eye. "I'm sorry too, sir. I obviously got the wrong impression." She turned and walked swiftly back to the door. As she opened it, someone rapped on the wood and jarred it out of her hands.

Daniel peeked around the edge and looked at her in surprise. "Gee. I'm sorry, Sam. I didn't see you there." He looked at her with concern when he saw her red face and teary eyes. "Is everything all right?"

She smiled bravely at him. "Sure, sure it is." She put one hand up and brushed the dampness off her cheeks. "I was just about to go and call Pete. I think I need to talk to him right away."

Daniel stepped back out of her way. "Well, if you need . . . something . . . someone to talk to . . . "

"I know, Daniel. Thanks." She quickly walked away and pulled the door shut behind her.

He turned and faced the General. O'Neill came forward and put his hands on the younger man's shoulders. "You are NOT the person she needs to talk to, Danny. Believe me on that." He pulled his lover into his arms and then kissed him gently, sweetly and profoundly.

When they finally separated, Daniel looked at him dazedly. "Wow, what brought that on?"

Jack looked at him with a mystified expression on his face and then shook his head. "Carter thought that I was interested in her as in romantic interest."

"Well, you can't blame her. You're a very good catch."

Jack frowned at him. "You're prejudiced and, according to her, my career is over and I'm just waiting to retire." He looked at the younger man shamefaced. "And, well, you may not be so quick to judge her when I tell you what happened when you were, well, gone again."

Daniel looked at him suspiciously. "Whhhyyy?"

Jack had the good grace to look embarrassed. "Well, ya see, you were gone, and I was feeling really crappy when Kerry put, well, she and I . . . "

"Don't tell me," Daniel frowned at his lover then the mobile face registered disbelief. "You didn't!"

"Well, the first time I was drinking pretty heavily and when I woke up, well, she was in my bed."

Daniel had an inscrutable look on his face, but didn't say anything.

"Daniel? Danny?" Jack released the younger man. "Daniel.. . . say something."

"You woke up and she just happened to be in your bed?" There was no emotion in his voice.

Jack could only nod and flush a deep red. "I'm sorry, babe," he whispered. "I don't know what to say."

"Not a lot you can say . . . babe." The sarcasm in his voice cut like a knife.

"I can say I'm sorry," Jack spoke in a soft voice. "I can say I was wrong. All I can say is it won't ever happen again."

"Yes, you can say all those things." Daniel nodded. "But, can you say you mean it?"

Jack nodded. "Yes. Absolutely. I mean it!"

Daniel chewed on his lower lip and looked around the office.

Jack reached out to him with his arms open but his lover stepped back out of their circle. Daniel turned and took several steps toward the large desk. He picked up the same model airplane that Jack had been holding earlier. "So, what was Sam so upset about?" Daniel asked abruptly.

Jack had turned to stay facing Daniel as the younger man had moved past him. He reached up and ran his fingers through his grey hair. "She thought, she assumed that when Kerry left it was because I had told her about us."

Frowning, Daniel looked at Jack. "Us? As in you and me? Sam knows?"

The older man coughed to clear his throat and shook his head. "No, as in she and I."

"You and whom?"

"For crying out loud, her and me, Carter and I. Carter thought that we, she and I, had a, uh, thing." Jack rubbed his head furiously then followed Daniel to the side of his desk.

Daniel slammed the model down, breaking the stand off of the bottom of the plane. He fingered the damage for a moment, then looked up at him angrily. "Why did I come back, Jack? Why did I even bother? What's the point?"

"Look, Daniel. I'm not gonna' say I'm innocent here. But, I didn't start it. "

"No, you just took advantage of it." Daniel turned to look at his traitorous lover. "Were you just using me too? Am I just a handy buddy fuck too?"

Jack didn't have anything to say. He just stood there, shamefaced, listening to Daniel. Finally, after several seconds he met the other man's eyes. "Damn it all, Daniel. Of course not. I love you! You're my partner. You're my life! What do you want me to do?"

Daniel only shook his head. "It depends on you I guess. Do you want to continue?"

"God, yes!" Jack looked at him with tears in his eyes. "I don't know how this happened, Danny. I swear that I didn't mean it to go so far." He shoved his hands into his pockets. "Some of us were afraid you were dead on that Replicator ship. Carter kept wanting to have another damned memorial service but I wouldn't let her. I couldn't do it. Couldn't admit you might really be gone this time. I couldn't believe you were really dead. I wanted you to come back so badly, and you did come back, again. And I've gone and fucked it all up, literally and figuratively."

The younger man shook his head. "I don't know, Jack." Then he looked at his lover. "And what's with Sam thinking you and her . . . "

"I swear. I didn't know. I've never . . . "

"Jack, don't be an ass." Daniel turned on him angrily. "Ever since the thing with the armbands, when you stayed with her in that Goa'uld mother ship, she's believed that you love her. Then when Martouf was killed at the meeting between the Tok'ra leader and the president,. when you said you couldn't leave her; where you told her she meant more to you than she should . . . "

"That's ridiculous, Daniel! The entire team means more to me than any of you should! Her, Teal'c, and you . . . you mean a hell of a lot more to me than you should. That's why Kerry left! She knew I had feelings for you. She even said that I shouldn't be afraid to bend the rules for love." He looked at his partner sadly. "And God and all his angels know that I love you."

"Well, they may know it, Jack, but I'm not sure any more." Daniel shook his head. "I'm not too sure of anything any more."

"What can I do, Danny? Just tell me. What can I do to convince you? I love you and I only want you by my side."

The younger man shook his head. "I don't know, Jack. I just don't know any more."

"Look," Jack grabbed the younger man by his arms. "Let's take some leave and head out somewhere . . . anywhere. The cabin . . . Denver . . . Chicago . . . Egypt . . . anywhere you want . . . price or place is no barrier." He smiled sadly at his lover. "Let me show you how much you mean to me. Please, babe. Give me another chance. Give us another chance."

Daniel looked at the man who had betrayed him, the man he loved, the man he'd come back from Abydos with, the man he returned from the dead for, twice, and he shook his head. "Let's just go home, Jack. Please, just take me home."

Jack looked at him for a split second, happy disbelief written on his face. He silently wrapped his arms around Daniel again, burying his face in the other man's neck. He couldn't bear to speak because he knew that if he did he wouldn't make it out of his office without breaking down like a frightened child. Then he released Daniel, picked up his hat and his car keys then looked at the other man questioningly.

Daniel nodded to him, and they both went out the door, pulling it shut behind them.


End file.
